Workflows

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Workflows dashboard

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Create a workflow

• Automatic or Build it For Me workflows, which use sensible default workflow settings to enable you to get good-quality results faster.
• Custom or Build it Myself workflows, which enable you to fine-tune the workflow settings behind the scenes to get very specific results.

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Create an automatic workflow

1. On the sidebar, click Workflows.
2. Click New Workflow.
3. Next to Build it for Me, click Create Workflow.
   If a radio button appears instead of Build it for Me, select it, and then click Continue.
4. For Workflow Name, enter some unique name for this workflow.
5. In the Sources dropdown list, select your source location.
6. In the Destinations dropdown list, select your destination location.
   You can select multiple source and destination locations. Files will be ingested from all of the selected source locations, and the processed data will be delivered to all of the selected destination locations.
7. Click Continue.
8. The Reprocess All box applies only to blob storage connectors such as the Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage connectors:
   • Checking this box reprocesses all documents in the source location on every workflow run.
   • Unchecking this box causes only new documents that are added to the source location, or existing documents that are updated in the source location, since the last workflow run to be processed on future runs. Previously processed documents are not processed again. However:
     • Even if this box is unchecked, a renamed file is always treated as a new file, regardless of whether the file’s original contents have changed.
     • Even if this box is unchecked, a file that is removed but is added back later with the same file name is processed on future runs only if the file’s contents have changed since the file was originally processed.
9. Click Continue.
10. If you want this workflow to run on a schedule, in the Repeat Run dropdown list, select one of the scheduling options, and fill in the scheduling settings. Otherwise, select Don’t repeat.
11. Click Complete.

• Partitioner: Auto strategy Unstructured automatically analyzes and processes files on a page-by-page basis (for PDF files) and on a document-by-document basis for everything else:
  • If the page or document has no images and likely does not have tables, Fast partitioning is used, and the page or document is billed at the Fast rate for processing.
  • If the page or document has only a few tables or images with standard layouts and languages, High Res partitioning is used, and the page or document is billed at the High Res rate for processing.
  • If the page or document has more than a few tables or images, VLM partitioning is used, and the page or document is billed at the VLM rate for processing.
  Learn about partitioning strategies.
• Chunker: Chunk by Title strategy
  • Contextual Chunking: No (unchecked)
  • Combine Text Under N Characters: 3000
  • Include Original Elements: Yes (checked)
  • Max Characters: 5500
  • Multipage Sections: Yes (checked)
  • New After N Characters: 3500
  • Overlap: 350
  • Overlap All: Yes (checked)
  Learn about chunking strategies.
• Embedder:
  • Provider: Azure OpenAI
  • Model: text-embedding-3-large, with 3072 dimensions
  Learn about embedding providers and models.
• Enrichments: This workflow contains no enrichments. Learn about available enrichments.

1. On the sidebar, click Workflows.
2. In the list of available workflows, click the workflow that was just created. This opens a visual designer that shows your workflow as a directed acyclic graph (DAG). This DAG contains a node representing each step in the workflow. There is one node for the partitioning step, another node for the chunking step, and so on.
3. To learn how to change a node’s settings or to add enrichment nodes, click the FAQ button in the flyout pane in the workflow DAG designer.

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Create a custom workflow

1. On the sidebar, click Workflows.
2. Click New Workflow.
3. Click the Build it Myself option, and then click Continue.
4. In the This workflow pane, click the Details button.
5. Next to Name, click the pencil icon, enter some unique name for this workflow, and then click the check mark icon.
6. If you want this workflow to run on a schedule, click the Schedule button. In the Repeat Run dropdown list, select one of the scheduling options, and fill in the scheduling settings.
7. To overwrite any previously processed files, or to retry any documents that fail to process, click the Settings button, and check either or both of the boxes. The Reprocess All Files box applies only to blob storage connectors such as the Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage connectors:
   • Checking this box reprocesses all documents in the source location on every workflow run.
   • Unchecking this box causes only new documents that are added to the source locations, or existing documents that are updated in the source location, since the last workflow run to be processed on future runs. Previously processed documents are not processed again. However:
     • Even if this box is unchecked, a renamed file is always treated as a new file, regardless of whether the file’s original contents have changed.
     • Even if this box is unchecked, a file that is removed but is added back later with the same file name is processed on future runs only if the file’s contents have changed since the file was originally processed.
8. The workflow begins with the following layout: The following workflow layouts are also valid:
   For workflows that use Chunker and Enrichment nodes together, the Chunker node should be placed after all Enrichment nodes. Placing the Chunker node before any Enrichment nodes could cause incomplete or no enrichment results to be generated.
   You can create and save a workflow that does not use a valid workflow layout. However, you cannot activate the workflow or run the workflow either manually or on a schedule until the workflow is changed to use a valid workflow layout.
9. In the pipeline designer, click the Source node. In the Source pane, select the source location. Then click Save.
   To use a local source location, do not choose a source connector.If the workflow uses a local source location, in the Source node, drag or click to specify a local file, and then click Test. The workflow’s results are displayed on-screen.A workflow that uses a local source location has the following limitations:

   • You cannot save the workflow.
   • You cannot send the results to a remote destination location, even if you have attached a destination connector to the workflow. However, you can save the results to a local JSON-formatted file.
10. Click the Destination node. In the Destination pane, select the destination location. Then click Save.
11. As needed, add more nodes by clicking the plus icon (recommended) or Add Node button:
    • Click Connect to add another Source or Destination node. You can add multiple source and destination locations. Files will be ingested from all of the source locations, and the processed data will be delivered to all of the destination locations. Learn more.
    • Click Enrich to add a Chunker or Enrichment node. Learn more.
      Unstructured can potentially generate image summary descriptions, table summary descriptions, and table-to-HTML output only for workflows that are configured as follows:

      • With a Partitioner node set to use the Auto or High Res partitioning strategy, and an image summary description node, table summary description node, or table-to-HTML output node is added.
      • With a Partitioner node set to use the VLM partitioning strategy. No image summary description node, table summary description node, or table-to-HTML output node is needed (or allowed).

      Even with these configurations, Unstructured actually generates image summary descriptions, table summary descriptions, and table-to-HTML output only for files that contain images or tables and are also eligible for processing with the following partitioning strategies:

      • High Res, when the workflow’s Partitioner node is set to use Auto or High Res.
      • VLM or High Res, when the workflow’s Partitioner node is set to use VLM.

      Unstructured never generates image summary descriptions, table summary descriptions, or table-to-HTML output for workflows that are configured as follows:

      • With a Partitioner node set to use the Fast partitioning strategy.
      • With a Partitioner node set to use the Auto, High Res, or VLM partitioning strategy, for all files that Unstructured encounters that do not contain images or tables.
    • Click Transform to add a Partitioner or Embedder node. Learn more.
    Make sure to add nodes in the correct order. If you are unsure, see the usage hints in the blue note that appears in the node’s settings pane.
    To edit a node, click that node, and then change its settings. To delete a node, click that node, and then click the trash can icon above it.
12. Click Save.
13. If you did not set the workflow to run on a schedule, you can run the worklow now.

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Custom workflow node types

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Edit, delete, or run a workflow

1. On the sidebar, click Workflows.
2. In the list of workflows, click Run in the row for the workflow that you want to run.

• Edit via Form: Changes the existing configuration of your workflow.
• Delete: Removes the workflow from the platform. Use this action cautiously, as it will permanently delete the workflow and its configurations.
• Open: Opens the workflow’s settings page.

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Pause a scheduled workflow

1. On the sidebar, click Workflows.
2. In the list of workflows, turn off the Status toggle in the row for the workflow that you want to stop running on a repeated schedule.

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Duplicate a workflow

1. On the sidebar, click Workflows.
2. In the list of workflows, click the ellipses (the three dots) in the row for the workflow that you want to duplicate.
3. Click Duplicate. A duplicate of the workflow is created with the same configuration as the original workflow. The duplicate workflow has the same display name as the original workflow but with (Copy) at the end.